Pop/Jazz; Folk Music As Ultimate Sing-Along

Folk music has a long tradition of organized togetherness that is still symbolized by hootenannies, group sing-alongs introduced by Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie and later popularized on television during the 1960's folk boom. The folk craze may have faded and the hootenanny become as anachronistic as the Edsel, but among folk musicians the need for togetherness still prevails.

What cohesion exists today is largely owed to performers like Christine Lavin, who is to perform with the singers John Gorka, Patty Larkin and Cliff Eberhardt tonight and tomorrow night at the Bottom Line in Manhattan in a folk-pop concert titled "On a Winter's Night."

A garrulous comic observer of contemporary manners, Ms. Lavin has been known in her shows to invite members of the audience onstage to play "Jeopardy," and to demonstrate her skills as a baton twirler. Within the folk-music world, she is also famous for championing her songwriting peers. She campaigned vigorously for Suzanne Vega to be noticed by the press and the record industry, and later helped spread the word about Julie Gold's song "From a Distance," which won a Grammy Award for best song in February. Her latest cause is a Boston folk group called the Story.

Ms. Lavin, who is 39 years old, recently served as the executive producer of two superior folk-pop anthologies on North Star Records, a small independent label in Providence, R.I. "On a Winter's Night," which was released last year, features 15 performers singing introspective hearthside ballads about personal relationships. Last month, the label released "When October Goes," a similar collection, whose two themes Ms. Lavin recently described as "autumn" and "leaving and returning." All four of the performers sharing the Bottom Line stage this weekend are featured on the record, which will be sold in the club along with their solo albums. A Living to Be Made

These days, folk music is not big business. None of the four have had a record on the national album charts. But as Ms. Lavin described it, there is still a decent living to be made in the folk-music world by people like herself who pursue their careers with pluck and imagination.

"Until I went full time into the music business in 1984, I was a secretary at Bellevue Hospital," she said.

"Because it was a very good job with a month's paid vacation and health benefits, most people thought I was insane," she said of leaving her job. "And in my first year, I made only $6,000. But today there are a lot of people working full time and having substantial careers. We may not be millionaires, but believe me, we're making a lot more than our rent money."

Although the record sales Ms. Lavin cited are tiny compared with those of Michael Jackson, Guns 'n' Roses and Madonna, they suggest a small but expanding market for folk music. Ms. Lavin's six albums forRounder Records, a small independent label in Boston, have together sold about 140,000, and all have made back more than their production costs, she said. Ms. Larkin's and Mr. Gorka's new albums, she said, have sold 16,000 and 30,000, respectively, in the last two months.

She dreamed up the winter's night concept two years ago, she said, when she made a cassette of 22 of her favorite songs by friends and sold 250 copies at a single club date in Cambridge, Mass.

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"I knew immediately I had a good thing," she said. "And the next year I did a commercial recording, changed it from 22 to 15 cuts, put it out on North Star and we did a tour of 36 concerts around the country." This year's tour has already played nine cities, she said, with $22,000 worth of records being sold from the stage. Live With 3 Friends

In August of 1990, Ms. Lavin also got together with Megon McDonough, Sally Fingerett and Ms. Larkin to record a live album, "Buy Me Bring Me Take Me: Don't Mess My Hair . . . Life According to Four Bitchin' Babes," for Rounder. The album, which she said cost only $3,500 to make, has sold about 20,000 copies. It includes Ms. Lavin and Mr. Gorka's hilarious comic putdown, "Sensitive New-Age Guys." Among other questions, the song asks: Who like to cry at weddings?

Who think boxing is upsetting?

Who taped "Twin Peaks" on their VCR's?

Who's got "baby on board" stickers on their cars?

In its topicality, "Sensitive New-Age Guys" is characteristic of Ms. Lavin's songs, which are laden with telling details. Among her newer compositions are a new-age rap song and an advice song, "Just Say No to Geraldo."

After years of being a cheerleader for others, musicians outside the folk-music sphere are finally beginning to sing Ms. Lavin's praises along with her songs. Andrea Marcovicci's new show at the Algonquin Hotel includes two Lavin compositions, the wry "Good Thing He Can't Read My Mind" and the more reflective "Kind of Love You Never Recover From."

Ms. Lavin has also begun work on a one-woman theater piece under the auspices of the New York Theater Workshop, which is to open in April in Manhattan.

"It will be loosely based on the way I do my solo show now, but with the theater set up like a living room," she said. "It's scary to me because I have no acting experience, but they're very encouraging."

Show times for "On a Winter's Night" at the Bottom Line, 15 West Fourth Street, are tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 and 10:30; tickets are $15. Information: (212) 228-7880.

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A version of this article appears in print on December 13, 1991, on Page C00034 of the National edition with the headline: Pop/Jazz; Folk Music As Ultimate Sing-Along. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe